Gates of Innocence
by Amethystlover02
Summary: This is a story about who Professor Palladium is and where he came from. Based of the video game and movie of Silent hill. Rated M for blood and gore. None in first chapter, though.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One...

The sun was shining in a way that told the young girl it was well late in the afternoon. She leaned against an old willow tree that was in the field she and her guardian had chosen to stop by to take a break from their driving.

As she watched the sun very slowly make its way towards the west, she sighed. It had been in the east of the sky when they had started on their road trip, now it was just hovering over the other side of the world it seemed. She knew they had to keep moving. The sun even told her that. They still had an awful lot of driving to get done if they wanted to reach their destination before late evening.

Although they had done a lot before the break, about five hours worth, they still had a long ways to go. About, maybe, three more hours. All they had eaten for the entire trip was snacks that they had packed.

Once they reached Brahams, the town they were currently outside of, they grabbed a quick bite at a small diner and headed for the outside of town for a break. Even though they still had a lot of driving to get done if they to be in their destination before nightfall, she just wanted to enjoy the break a little longer. She had been the one driving and after they started in the last town, her guardian thought it would be best they got something to eat besides cookies and other junk and to take a quick break, knowing that they hadn't taken one yet.

So, after they were on the outside of the town, she pulled over to the field with the willow tree and grassland that over looked the sunset. Once she had parked the car and gotten out, she immediately took her spot by the old willow.

She turned her attention from the sunset to her guardian, who had taken his place by the sign that welcomed people to the town they had just left. He was leaning against the back of the sign with his jean covered knees up so they could hold his sketch book that he was drawing in.

To some, it looked like he may have been drawing the sunset, but the girl knew him better than that. She walked over to him. The wind made her red hair dance around her face and her knee length skirt dance around her legs. It wasn't long until she was at his side. Even though his own long caramel brown hair was tied back, it was still blowing in the wind and making it so she wasn't able to see the drawing.

He then sensed her presence and looked up at her. His eyes were a warm brown and they always seemed to make her insides warm and make her feel safe whenever he looked into her own light blue eyes. He smiled.

"Wanna see?" he asked as he started to scoot over to make room for her at his side.

"Yes, please," she answered and took the place next to him. "What are you drawing, Aiden?" He showed her the drawing. She was somewhat surprised at the drawing. It was a well detailed drawing of her leaning against the willow tree. Her head was facing away from the seeing eyes and towards her right; how she had been looking at the sunset. There was nothing else drawn.

It surprised her because Aiden had drawn something that he was actually looking at, something of which he never seemed to do. Normally, he drew things that were in his head, memory or even things he was thinking about. This was the first time she had seen him draw something he was actually looking at.

But other than that, it was still a wonderful picture that was well detailed. It looked like a black and white photograph and he had only drawn it in about the twenty-nine minutes they had been there. She looked back at him.

"Once again," she said, "you have amazed me with your talent for drawing, Aiden. You should have been an art teacher and taught something you liked and could do well in." She leaned against him while he smiled.

"It's not that I didn't like what I taught, Bloom," he said as he wrapped his arm around her. "I just mostly got nervous about the actual _teaching, _not the subject." Bloom didn't believe that, for she had been in his classes and had seen the way he acted. Yes, part of it was the students just giving him a hard time, but the other half did come from the subject he was teaching.

He had been a former nature professor at the school she use to go to but as far as what Bloom could see, he was better drawing nature than teaching it. But she didn't say anything more on the subject. She didn't want to argue with him. They were supposed to be on vacation and that meant they had to get along. Not that they argued a lot, she just wanted them to get along while they were on vacation.

"So, what's the name of the town that we are visiting again?" she asked, changing the subject by asking the name of the town they were going to visit and spend their vacation at. It had been somewhat of a long name and Bloom kept forgetting it. This was not only a good way to change the subject but also a good way to learn the name of the town…again.

"It's called Gates of Innocence," Aiden said as Bloom leaned her head on his shoulder. "My dad took me there once when I was fourteen. I don't really remember the reason why he took me nor do I remember very much of the trip, but my dad told me it was a very nice town." At the thought of mentioning his father, Aiden went silent. Bloom looked up at him and into his eyes. They seemed to be filled with pain while he was lost in thought.

Aiden Palladium had quite a painful past that nobody seemed to know about and shocked Bloom when she learned about it. His parents had died from pneumonia; first his mother then his father. Then his sister was murdered by her boyfriend two years after their father died and his brother was taken by consumption three years after their sister was murdered. This all happened before he came to Bloom's school.

How he manage to hide his painful past so well from his students and even some of the teachers and always have a cheery expression was something Bloom would never know. Since she had moved in with him, she had learned about his family and what happened to them because Aiden thought she had somewhat of a right to know.

"I'm sorry, Aiden," Bloom said as she leaned against him once again only closer, "I didn't mean to bring it up like that." He blinked out of thought and looked down at Bloom. He shook his head as he held her closer to him.

"Don't worry about it," he said softly as he started to close his eyes. "Don't even worry about it." Bloom began to close her eyes as well. It had been a long day and she was quite drowsy. But behind her eye lids, she saw no darkness. She hadn't seen darkness since that awful night. The night responsible for making her have to move in with her former professor. The night that caused her many sleepless nights.

Behind her lids she saw the flames. She saw the flames, felt the heat, smelled the smoke, and even heard the screams of all her friends, family, teachers, and classmates. She was right in the middle of the burning building, surrounded by flames.

Although she was in the middle of this horrible fire, she had no burns and felt no pain. Her skin was normal and the fire didn't even seem to touch her even though she was pretty close to it. She couldn't see in the yellow flames what was happening, but as she walked forward, the flames seemed to clear out of her way. She kept walking and walking and walking until…

"Bloom?" Aiden's voice cut through her dream and woke her up. She rubbed her eyes and moaned softly. "I'm sorry, hon, but it's late and we still got a lot of driving to do." She sat up and tried to wake herself up the rest of the way. It took a second, but she was finally fully awake. She looked at Aiden who was smiling at her.

"You awake?" he asked. She nodded. She didn't even feel like she fell asleep. "You wanna go?" he asked. She nodded again. Aiden packed up his sketch book in his shoulder bag that was at his side and they stood up. They walked to his Mercury Mountaineer that was parked by the side of the road. As Bloom started to head for the driver's seat, Aiden said,

"Bloom, do you want me to drive? You look really tired and you've driven for five hours without a break and we still have a long way to go." Bloom rubbed her eyes and yawned. She was tired, but it wasn't that bad. She wanted to drive; it took her mind off things like her recurring nightmare.

"No, I'm fine," she answered as she opened the driver seat door and got into the car. Aiden looked at her worried for a moment, but finally opened the passenger side door and got in the car himself. As soon as he was in, Bloom started the car up and got on the road.

Once they were on the road, Aiden pulled out the map that he had been using for the trip from the glove compartment and started to study a route that was highlighted red. Bloom watched as he did this and chuckled a bit. He turned his head to looked at her with a confused and even a little irritated look.

"What's so funny?" he asked. He must have said it in somewhat of an annoyed tone, cause Bloom immediately stopped chuckling and looked apologetic. But when Aiden didn't seem to change his look, Bloom explained herself.

"Well, it's just kind of funny that you need directions on a place that you've been to…" Aiden looked at her with widen eyes, as if he could believe that she had said that. Well, he really _couldn't_ believe she said that. That wasn't something that Bloom would say. That was something that Amaryl, an ex-student of his, might say.

Seeing that Aiden hadn't changed his expression, Bloom tried to explain herself once more; this time choosing her words carefully.

"If you've been to this place before, how come you still need to look up directions for it? Don't you know where it is?" She tried to say it as nicely as she could. But at least Aiden could figure out that she didn't mean to be rude about it. He sighed, put the map back in its place, and sat back.

"It's been forever since I've been there, Bloom." He said slowly and softly. "Forever. I told you I don't even remember the last time I was there. So yes, I do need help finding the right roads so we don't take a wrong turn."

"…And end up in the mountains where the three cannibals live?" Bloom finished with a chuckle. Aiden smiled at her then started to laugh himself. It just wasn't easy to stay mad at Bloom Peters. It wasn't. But there were times where he could.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

About two and a half hours later, the sun had completely vanished and the sky became black. _So much for making it there before nightfall, _Bloom thought to herself. Around this time, the gas light came on; telling Bloom that they needed to fill up. Luckily, there was a gas station that was just up the road, where Bloom pulled into and stopped at the first pump.

She turned off the engine, got out of the car, and began to pump gas into the car. Once she was done, she went around back to the back seat of the car where her purse was. She opened the door and reached into her purse, which was under Aiden's shoulder bag, for her wallet. As she did this, her eyes were caught by the sketch book in the shoulder bag.

After she got out her wallet, she opened the shoulder bag the rest of the way and took out Aiden's sketch book. It was opened to the page of the drawing that he had recently made, only it didn't look that way now.

Instead of the once lovely sketch of her, Bloom was shocked to find the person that was once her in the picture surrounded by what looked like demons that were drawn with black and red pencil. Black came out of their eyes while red came out of their mouths and fell towards the person in the drawing, who also had changed. This time it looked more like Aiden only with black hair, wearing a black jacket with a red collar, blue jeans that were rolled up at the ankles and black worker boots.

While it was still nicely drawn, it scared Bloom horribly and caused her hands to start shaking. Suddenly, the passenger door opened up and Aiden got out of the car, rubbing his eyes; he had fallen asleep sometime within the hour.

"Oh, you're awake?" Bloom asked as Aiden got out of the car and stood by her.

"Yeah," he answered in a sleepy voice, "I'm sorry, Bloom, I didn't mean to fall asleep on you." Bloom smiled at Aiden and for a minute forgot the disturbing drawing in her hand.

"That's ok, Aiden," Bloom replied, "I thought you looked really tired."

"But you were the one driving," Aiden said as he started to stretch and look around. "Where are we?"

"I'm not too sure," Bloom answered, " I haven't looked at the map yet. I just stopped here because we were low on gas."

"Ok," Aiden said as he started to get back into the car, "I'll check the map real quick and see where we are at. Are we on Route 97 yet?"

"Yes," Bloom answered as she headed inside to pay for the gas. While she walked, she realized that she still had Aiden's sketch book in her hands. She forgot to ask him about the drawing. Once she had finished paying for the gas, she walked back to the car to find Aiden out of the car and looking around the area and the map.

"Alright," he said as Bloom reached him, "We are in Bachman County. Which means we aren't too far away. We just have to stay on Route 97 until we find the road Midwich which should take us all the way to Gates of Innocence."

"Great," Bloom said, "Uh Aiden? Can I ask you something?" Aiden nodded. Bloom then held up his sketch book. "Your drawing that you made just this afternoon was really nice…"

"Thanks, hon," he said, "You're not going to start that whole thing with-"

"Why did you change it?" Bloom asked, cutting him off. Aiden looked at her confused.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. Bloom showed him the drawing. His expression changed from confusion, to disbelief, to fear. He took the sketch book into his hands and over looked the terrifying drawing more frequently.

"I…" Aiden started to say, "I didn't…do this…"

"You mean you can't remember doing this?" Bloom asked him. Aiden looked at her with a terrified look.

"No," he said, "I mean I _didn't do this_. I was asleep the whole time. How could I have done this?" Bloom's eyes widen as she realized that Aiden had been asleep the entire time the sketch book was in the bag, so he couldn't have done this. "Did you do this?" Bloom looked at him.

"Are you kidding?" she asked, "I can't draw that good whatsoever. Besides, I was driving the whole time." Aiden looked back at the sketch book for a while then shook his head and placed it back in the bag it was in. He slammed the car door shut after doing so; his head leaned against the window.

Although Aiden told Bloom a lot about his past, there were a few things he had left out. The fact that this kind of thing had happened before was one of them. When he was younger, he would draw all these fantastic pictures, then suddenly they would be in the condition that Bloom found this one: all creepy and nightmare looking with the same man appearing in every one of them.

Because it seemed to stop when he was fourteen, Aiden felt that Bloom didn't need to know about his magical changing pictures, so he kept it to himself. Bloom slowly walked over to the frustrated and frighten Aiden to place a hand on his back, which led to her leaning her own head against his back and closing her eyes.

A minute passed before Aiden stood up and turned around to face Bloom, only to have her lean against his chest instead. He sighed softly and smiled a small smile as he wrapped his arms around his adopted daughter and leaned his head on top of her head. It was obvious to him that Bloom was exhausted and needed to get some rest before she passed out. He was surprised she hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel while they were on the road. He opened the passenger's door and gently guided Bloom into the car.

Once he had her in the car and in the seat, she opened her eyes and looked at him with confusion.

"You need to sleep," Aiden said as he buckled her seat belt and covered her up with his chocolate brown coat that was on the floor of the car. "I'll drive the rest of the way." If Bloom wasn't so tired, she may have put up more of an argument with him, but instead she snuggled under his coat and closed her eyes once again. Aiden smiled at her as he closed the door, ran around to the driver's seat, opened that door and hopped into the seat. He started the engine and pulled out of the gas station's parking lot.

While on Route 97, Aiden turned on the CD player and allowed the sound of Lacy Strums' sweet voice gently fill the Mountaineer. As he drove on the highway and listened to the music, he chucked to himself. He never struck Bloom as a fan of Flyleaf or any other kind of music like them such as Evanescence, AFI, My Chemical Romance, and the Gorillaz, so when he showed Bloom what he had for his CD collection, she was surprised to find that they were all CDs of those bands.

After a few miles on Route 97, Aiden made a left turn. The road of Midwich was long and abandon when Aiden turned onto it. While the highway of Route 97 had at least a handful of cars traveling on it and a decent amount of light shining on it, Midwich was quiet and think with woods with no lighting at all.

It was hard enough for him to see without it being lit, now the trees all around the road made it even harder. They also made him glad that he and Bloom traded places, because he wouldn't want her driving on this road at this time at night.

He looked over at the sleeping teenager and smiled; glad that she was able to fall asleep, for he knew about her sleepless nights due to her nightmare about the fire. He wondered how long it would take the poor girl to at least get past the nightmares. He himself was still getting over nightmares about his family's death-mainly his sister's-and that was over six years ago.

He sighed and turned his attention back to the road. A few miles later his favorite song by Flyleaf _All Around Me _came on and he started to sing along with it:

_My hands are searching for you  
My arms are outstretched towards you  
I feel you on my fingertips  
My tongue dances behind my lips for you_

This was by far Aiden's favorite song; it reminded him so much of Star, his fiancée who had died in child labor. This was another thing that Aiden didn't tell Bloom about because it had happened not too long ago and he _still_ was unable to talk about it. __

This fire rising through my being  
Burning I'm not used to seeing you

This had been their favorite song. This was what she would sing to him in order to help him fall asleep at night after his father died, then his sister, then his brother.

_I'm alive, I'm alive  
I can feel you all around me  
Thickening the air I'm breathing_

_Holding on to what I'm feeling  
Savoring this heart that's healing_

While singing along, Aiden could feel tears start to burn in his eyes. As much as he loved the song, it did reminded him an awful lot about Star, and therefore it would cause him to start crying, which he was doing right now.

_My hands float up above me  
And you whisper you love me  
And I begin to fade  
Into our secret place_

Hearing his soft, singing voice, Bloom slowly opened her eyes and looked at Aiden with a sleepy smile. When he saw that she was awake, he quickly whipped away any tears that had escaped his eyes.

_The music makes me sway  
The angels singing say we are alone with you  
I am alone and they are too with you_

"We there yet?" the young girl asked in a sleepy voice as she rubbed her eyes.

_I'm alive  
I'm alive_

"Almost, hon," he answered without looking at her, for he missed a few tears and his eyes were slightly puffy. He did not want to show Bloom that he had been crying. Plus, he had to keep his eyes on the road just in case some animal might jump out onto it. Soon the woods began to clear away and Aiden could easily see the road. Feeling it was ok to turn away for a second and confident that the evidence of his crying was gone, he looked at Bloom.

_I can feel you all around me  
Thickening the air I'm breathing  
Holding on to what I'm feeling  
Savoring this heart that's healing_

"You excited?" he asked her with a smile, "We're almost finally there." Bloom was about to answer when she turned back to the road and a shocked expression fell upon her face; replacing the sleepy smile and fully waking her up.

_So I cry  
(Holy)  
The light is white  
(Holy)  
And I see you_

"AIDEN! WATCH OUT!" she screamed as he turned to the road to see a figure walk across the it and in front of the car. It was hard to see, but they both could tell it was not an animal; it was a person.

_I'm alive  
I'm alive  
I'm alive_

Since Bloom wasn't the one driving, she could see the figure better and saw that it had long black hair and was dressed in a black jacket. But that was all she could see before Aiden jerked the wheel to miss the person, so no one saw that the figure had disappeared into thin air by the time the car had reached him. __

And I can feel you all around me  
Thickening the air I'm breathing  
Holding on to what I'm feeling  
Savoring this heart that's healing

Take my hand  
I give it to you  
Now you own me  
All I am  
You said you would never leave me  
I believe you  
I believe

The jerk made the whole car swerved off the road and caused both him and Bloom to scream. The car came to a sudden halt when it went into the ditch that was at the side of the road and caused Bloom to hit her head on the windshield. She was knocked out instantly, Lacy Strum's voice sang in the background:

_I can feel you all around me  
Thickening the air I'm breathing  
Holding on to what I'm feeling  
Savoring this heart that's healed…_

When Bloom finally came to, it was no longer dark outside. She moaned in pain and slowly sat up in her seat and felt her head, which was bleeding from a small cut. She then looked at the outside world from her window and saw that it was covered in a thick blanket of fog; small white things floated from the sky.

Bloom groaned in pain as she sat up in her seat and leaned back, holding her aching head. It was here that she realized something she was too scared by the accident to realize: the person who walked out in the road looked just like the man from Aiden's drawing.

_But…how can that be? _Bloom thought to herself, _Who was that man? And why does he look so much like Aiden? _ At the thought of mentioning her guardian, Bloom looked beside her to see if he was alright. But when she looked, she saw the seat was empty and the door was wide open; allowing the cold air to come into the car. Bloom's eyes widen.

"Aiden," she said in shock as she got out of the car, only to be almost plowed over by the sudden amount of cold air. This confused her, for it was only September and it was pretty warm out earlier. She shivered, quickly grabbed Aiden's coat and threw it on over her jean jacket-shirt and silky skirt. It was a little big, but it warmed her up in a matter of minutes. She then closed the car doors and started walking on the road, looking for any sign of Aiden.

It wasn't too long before she came upon a huge sign that was on the side of the road. It was old and worn with the paint chipping off of it. But she was able to make out the words it said. **Welcome to: Gates of Innocence. **_Yeah, _Bloom thought in her head, _thanks for the big welcome. _

Bloom broke into a run when she was past the sign and found the whole entire town covered in a huge blanket of the fog and falling snow. It was very quiet, like the town had no sign of life anywhere. As she walked through the streets, Bloom over looked every building she passed, trying to see if she could find anyone or even Aiden. But all of the buildings were empty.

_This is so strange, _she thought to herself as she observed the town which appeared to be empty. _It's so quiet, too quiet. This place is a complete ghost town. Where is everybody? Where could Aiden be? Why would he just walk off like this? _When she was in the middle of the town, Bloom stopped and began to look all around her.

"AIDEN!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. No answer. She called again and again no answer. She was almost about to call again when a sound suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind her after she screamed the last time. It was the sound of running footsteps. She quickly looked behind her just in time to see a figure run across the road from right to left farther in front of her. From the distance, it looked exactly like the person she was looking for.

"AIDEN!" she screamed louder as she took off after the person. The person she was running after had a totally different change in clothes than Aiden's dark blue hoodie and blue jeans and had black hair instead of caramel brown.

But Bloom didn't take any notice in this due to the fog and the distance between them. She just kept running after him through the town until she followed him to a stair case that led to somewhere that was too dark for Bloom to see. The only thing she saw was the man who resembled Aiden go down the last two steps before disappearing around the dark corner.

"Aiden?" Bloom called down the stairs as she slowly started down them herself. "Aiden?" she called even softer, like it was more for her than for the person she was running after. Suddenly, it got even quieter. It had been pretty quiet before, but now it was like the whole world had gone silent. The wind stopped moving and all the extra sounds suddenly stopped.

But the quiet didn't last very long. A few seconds later, a loud siren like sound ripped through the silent. Bloom looked behind her and around her until her eyes reached the sky. She noticed that the gray sky was starting to grow blacker and blacker. She then turned back to the stairs and as she began again down them, the rest of the world got darker and darker until it was completely in total darkness and Bloom couldn't see a thing. The siren stopped when the whole world was black.

Trying not to panic, Bloom fished into the pocket of the coat she was wearing and found-thankfully-a lighter and a small candle stick that Aiden had forgotten to take out of his pocket. She quickly lit the candle and the small light lit up the entire world around her.

In the light, she saw that the world had changed completely: the walls of the stairs were now made from metal instead of cement and were covered in rust and blood. The stairs were also no longer cement but made from caged like metal which was also rusted and bloody and made clicking noises when she stepped on them. It was no longer snowing, but raining. The whole thing made Bloom feel like she was living in a nightmare.

"What's happening?" she asked herself softly. Shortly after she asked, another soft voice came from the bottom of the stairs. A very familiar voice that made Bloom continue on.

"Bloom…" it whispered. She walked the rest of the way down the stairs and turned the corner.

"Aiden…" she whispered back as she continued on. The stairs led her to another part of the town, which to sum up was just more rusty, bloody metal. The outside flooring had openings that were covered by the same caged in metal as the stairs while the buildings were made from the same metal as the stair walls and even dirty stone. The whole area was fenced off with chained fences. To the sixteen year old, the whole town looked like a total nightmare or what Hell was suppose to look like.

Despite all this, she went on, looking for the man who resembled her guardian. She followed the path around all the fences, looking for Aiden and calling out his name. When she came to one spot in the corner of a fenced in area, she found a gerny with a bloody cloth over something that was on top of it.

_What is this? _She thought to herself even though she had a pretty good idea of what the answer was. Before she could act to keep herself from throwing up, Bloom heard the sound of the metal fence behind her rattle…like something was running against it. Or like someone was running their fingers over it.

She turned and shinned the light just in time to see a familiar face behind the caged fence and be illuminated in the candle's light. But this didn't last very long before the person took off.

"Hey!" hollered Bloom as she followed the person around the fence and through a maze of the chained fences. Due to the fact that he seemed to have gotten a head start and knew his way around the fences better than Bloom did, he was further ahead of her while she fell behind trying to find her own way through the maze.

Finally, it seemed she would catch up to him when he rounded a corner, only for him to lose her when he went through an opening in the fence that Bloom didn't see due to what looked like…well…she had no idea what they looked like. When she looked up to see what they were coming from, she jumped back about a foot screaming.

Standing right in front of her, chained to the fence by its arms, was a disemboweled body. It was dressed in some sort of outfit that reminded Bloom of an outfit used for deep sea diving and had a sort of breathing mask over the head and face. The legs (bone and all) were long gone while organs, blood and other unknown body fluids spilled out from the opened wound and onto the floor, telling Bloom what the stuff was that was blocking her way through the opening.

But the thing that really scared the girl was when she looked into the opened eyes of the body through the mask and saw them moving around then looking at her; it seemed to be letting her know it was still alive. She screamed louder than she ever had before and when she was done, she threw up.

The vomit fell onto the fallen guts and mixed in with them so Bloom couldn't tell them from her puke. Once her stomach was completely lost of her dinner and the snacks, she heard another sound of footsteps from behind her. She became hopeful that it might be Aiden, but her hope was soon turned to fear when she turned around and found it was not Aiden.

It was a creator that was smaller than her. While it resembled a person, it was nothing of the sort with its smooth gray skin and firey red eyes. When it held up its hand, it held a large butcher's knife and when it opened its mouth, it let out a shrill scream. Bloom let out a scream of her own and dropped the candle as she turned around, only to find more of these horrifying things coming towards her.

When she saw a chance, she ran through what she hoped was a way through the hideous creatures only to have them tighten their surround on her and start to grab her. Luckily, they only had a hold of the coat she was wearing and she was able to slip out of it and start running away again.

She ran and ran and ran, not too sure about where she was going. But at the moment she really didn't care, as long as it was away from those things. She turned behind her to see how far away she was from them, only to find that they were hot on her tail. To make matters worse, there seemed to be even more than when she started running.

Trying not to panic too much, Bloom began trying some of the doors to the buildings she was passing. _If I can't out run them, maybe I can hide from them, _she thought in her head. She began to get frustrated and even more panicky when the first three doors she tried didn't give.

Finally, on the fourth door, the knob willingly turned. _Oh thank Go-_ Bloom's thoughts of relief were cut short when the door would not open all the way; something was in the way and blocking the door. _Oh, come on! _Screamed Bloom in her mind as she began to slam her body with all her might against the door. She tried doing this while trying not to look at the mob of gray creatures with large butcher knives getting closer.

Little by little, the door began opening until whatever was in the way was pushed out of the way, causing the door to swing open and Bloom to fall into the building and hit her head hard on the dirty floor. Stunned by the sudden pain that was thrown back into her head, Bloom was unable to get up from the floor.

She looked behind her and saw the gray monsters starting to surround her and try to grab at her. In a desperate attempted, she began to crawl on the floor, grabbing whatever she could that would assist her in her crawl. She didn't get very far until she felt cold, claw-like hands grab at her legs and drag her back.

"G-g-get off me!" Bloom stuttered a scream due to lack of breathing from the crawling and fear. "Get off me!" The creatures pulled her back towards them and she soon found herself fully surrounded by the monsters while they started to inaccurately swing their bloodily butcher knives at her, missing every swing.

"AAAHHHHH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "GET OFF ME!"

Suddenly, the monsters started to back away from her. Back away and start…burning? Bloom blinked and watched in horror and relief as the gray monsters started to burn in hot embers that suddenly appeared on their bodies and turn to ashes right before her eyes. She could also see that behind them, the outside sky was getting brighter.

But this was all she saw before she lied her head down and close her eyes. Half fainting, half just plain exhausted from the horror she went through, the teenage girl ultimately passed out, gently mumbling the whole time,

"G-g-get…o-off-f…m-m-me…g-g-get…o-off…"

**Author's note: Well, there's chapter two. Not too much blood and gore in it, but I promise to those of you who want it there will be more to come. Just to let you guys know in case you get confused, the white things floating in the air is SNOW, not ashes. In the movie they were ashes because the town was caught on fire, but in the video game it was snow and the town had NOT caught on fire. This story is a mix between the movies and the games, so there will be things from both. This part is mostly based off the movie, but the second and third parts while be based off the games more. But we'll worry about them when I'm done with part one. So until then, please enjoy and review. Thanx!**

**Oh, I also added the Flyleaf song to show off Palladium's character in this story. More about Star will be told, but not in this story because Bloom does not know about her.**


	3. Chapter 3 Into the Fire

**Chapter 3 Into the Fire**

The whole world was beginning to turn light again. But even so, Bloom still felt hands touching her. Though these did not feel like the same hands those creatures had and were fewer in numbers, she was still paranoid with the thought of them, causing her to jolt from her unconsciousness and sit up screaming.

"GET OFF ME!" she screamed, causing the one who had touched her to shout in surprise and fall backward. Once she settled down, Bloom looked at the person who had fallen and was surprised at what she found. It was a young man, maybe a few years older than Aiden, who had long blonde hair and a light skin tone. He was dressed in a blue police officer uniform and his hair was pulled back into a half ponytail. When he sat up, he looked at her with frighten dark chocolate brown eyes. This was where she saw his pointy ears and realized he was an elf just like Aiden was.

She sighed with relief when she realized he wasn't one of the creatures that had assaulted her and looked around the room she was in. In the now lit world, she could see it was an old café. She shook her head and put her face into her hands. She thought about what had happened with the world going completely dark and those creatures chasing after her.

"Was I dreaming?" she asked herself as she began to rub her forehead.

"How do you feel?" asked another voice that was soft but stern sounding. Bloom looked up to see that the elf police officer was now sitting at the bar of the café and looking down at her; his eyes were filled with concern now. She sighed and slowly got up from the floor, walked over to him, and sat in the chair next to him.

"Like I've been run over by a truck," she answered, still rubbing her head, "but I'm alright, I guess." He nodded and allowed a smile to form on his handsome face.

"Glad to hear it," he said as he started to look over her appearance. "Are you from around here? Why don't you tell me what happened to you and why I found you just lying on the floor there." Though he said it nicely, Bloom could still hear some accusion in his voice. She gave him a hard look.

"Hey wait a second I'm just a tourist," she told him, "I'm not from around here at all. I came here for a vacation. I just got here. I don't know what happened, Sir, to the town or to me. I'd like to find out for myself, actually." He studied her for a moment; her hard look and reply didn't appear to have affected him.

"Uh-huh," he said for his own reply. There was then silence between the two. Bloom continued to wonder about what had just happened while the officer continued his study of her. After a few moments of this, a thought came back to Bloom's mind and she turned back to the officer.

"Hey, have you seen a guy running around here at all?" she asked him. He looked at her confused so she went on. "Just turned twenty-six five months ago, long brown hair, tall, lightly tanned?" He didn't change his look. "He's an elf just like you are. He's also my guardian and I've lost him in the car wreck we were in." He seemed to be surprised when she mentioned he was an elf, but it didn't last very long and turned back into confusion. "Hang on, I have a picture of him in my locket-" she felt around her neck to find it was bare.

"Is this what you're looking for?" asked the officer. Bloom looked at him to find him holding a silver chain with a silver oval hanging from it. "I found it on the ground just outside of the café. Had no idea on whose it could be till I saw you inside the café." She nodded as he handed it to her. She then opened it up and flipped through the pictures. The first was one of her and her earth parents Mike and Vanessa, the next of her and her friends from her school, the third of her and Sky, her boyfriend. She then finally came to the last two pictures. One was of Aiden when he was seventeen. She had found it in the bedroom Aiden had given to her at the apartment and he explained that it was his senior picture. She then asked if she could keep it and he said she could. The last picture was a more resent picture. It was of her and Aiden on his twenty-sixth birthday. They had gone out to his favorite restaurant with some of his friends and had one of them take their picture. She showed the officer the two pictures, but he shook his head.

"Sorry, dear," he answered shaking his head, "The only one I've seen in this town is you. That's why I asked if you were from around here." Bloom's eyes widen as she realized the he was the only person she's seen around this town as well. Besides the person who she thought was Aiden and those creatures, of course.

"Speaking of that," she said as she closed her locket and placed it around her neck, "where _is _everyone?"

"I tell you if I knew," he said, "believe me. But from what I can tell, something bizarre is going on around this town. That's all I know."

"Hmmm…" said Bloom. _I believe that, _Bloom thought to herself, _thought I don't think bizarre is the right word for what's going on. Maybe more along the lines of impossible or insane._

"What's your name, hon?" asked the officer. The question broke the teen girl from her thoughts.

"Bloom…" she answered, "Bloom Peters. What's yours, Sir?"

"Felix Brown," he answered as he reached out his hand for Bloom to shake, "I'm a police officer from Brahams-the town next over." Bloom took Felix's hand into her own to shake it. His hand was impossibly smooth for a guy's hand-or for a _human_ guy's hand, anyways. "I was making a nightly patrol when I actually had an accident myself on my bike on my way here and was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I got into town as fast as I could and tried to make a call back to the station and found nobody here and the phones all dead. The radios too. I was actually on my way to the fire lookout tower on the west side of the lake to see if I could use that radio when I found you. I'm going to go there now so I can hopefully call in some reinforcements." Bloom nodded her head slowly.

"Humph," she said softly. So it wasn't just her; something weird was going on in this town…and her guardian was out there somewhere in the mist of all of it. Just the thought of Aiden being out there made her shiver. She then got up from the seat and started for the door of the café.

"Hold it," said Felix, "where do you think you're going, young lady?" Bloom turned back to the officer.

"My guardian," she replied, "I've got to find him and make sure he's alright."

"No way!" said Felix, getting up from his seat and walking closer to Bloom. "I will not allow a young girl like you wandering the streets of this town. It's too dangerous out there."

"If that's the case, then I need to find him now!" said Bloom in a more panicked tone, "Aiden means a ton to me. I can't just leave him out there by himself…not when I know he would come looking for me if it was me out there." There was a small moment of silence between the two. Felix appeared to be studying Bloom's face for something.

"Do you have anything to protect yourself with?" he asked, "Like a gun?" Bloom bit her lip and looked down.

"Ummm…no" she answered. Felix came closer and pulled a small hand gun from his belt.

"Here," he said, "if I can't stop you from exploring the town, then I'll at least give you something to defend yourself with. Take this and hope you don't have to use it." Before he offered it to the girl, he gave her a hard look. "Now listen carefully: before you pull the trigger, know who your shooting and don't use it unless you have to. And don't go blasting me by mistake. Got it?"

"Yeah," Bloom said as Felix finally gave her the gun. She over looked the thing and instantly became glad her dad had given her those long boring lessons on guns and how to work them; she recognized this gun and knew how to work it. "Thanks." She put the gun in the pocket of her jean jacket and looked back at Felix.

"Do you know how to work it?" asked the officer. Bloom nodded. "Alright then, I'm going to go to that lookout house to see if I can contact any help. While I do that, please be careful around this town. I'll be back with help as quick as I can." With that, he walked past Bloom and out the door and was gone.

Bloom looked around the old café and sighed. _I better look around to see if there's anything else I could use in here,_ she thought as she looked around. On the bar, she found a flashlight that worked-thankfully-a map of the town, and a kitchen knife. After she gathered all this, she looked them over and wondered how she was going to carry them. _I'm defiantly going to need something to carry all this stuff in. _Bloom thought. She then remembered how cold it was outside and over looked her outfit of her jacket, silky skirt, and tank top. _A change in clothes might not be a bad idea either. I left the car outside of the town. I should head back to it before I go looking for Aiden. Get a quick change of clothes and Aiden's shoulder bag to carry anything I find. _

She then turned to leave when a small sound caught her ears. It sounded like static from a radio and was coming from the far corner of the café. Bloom turned back around and started heading in the direction of the sound and found a small, red pocket radio. It was going crazy with the static. She picked it up by its holding string that was attached to it.

"What's going on with this thing?" she asked herself.

CRASHHHH!

Something broke through the window she was closes to. She turned around to see a huge, winged creature hovering the in air. It looked like a sort of pterodactyl with its face and wings. It screeched like a pig would and had long legs. Its fleshy skin was a brownish-red color.

Without really thinking, Bloom reached for her gun that was inside her pocket and began shooting the creature. After about three shots, the thing finally went down and the radio became silent. Slowly, Bloom walked over to it and examined it. She began breathing faster than what she was before when she gets a better look at what almost attacked her.

"This is not a dream!" she told herself, "what is going on in this town?" She walked away slowly from the creature then looked down at the radio in her hands. _Hmm, this thing statics up when this creature was around it. I better keep it just in case there're more of them out in the town. _After looking one last time at the dead monster, she opened the door and quickly left the café.

The outside world was just as she once saw it: snowy and foggy with no life anywhere. She sighed and fished out the map in her pocket to find where the entrance of the town was. To her relief, it wasn't very far away at all; she was only a mile into the town. She folded up the map and shoved it into her pocket before she started running down the vacant streets towards her destination. Luckily, the radio was silent the whole way and she made it back to the mountaineer without much problem. She smiled when the blue car came into view, though it faded when she walked behind it to get to the way back seat for her's and Aiden's suitcases.

Slowly, she started walked down the road to what should have been the outside of the town only to find in its place the road gone; it was broken off, leaving nothing but an edge in its place. When she got to the end of the road, she looked down the edge. She felt dizzy when she looked down at the foggy bottomless pit and nearly fell, only to fall to her knees instead when she caught herself. She shook her head in disbelief. What happened to the road? Why was it gone like this? It certainly wasn't like this before.

"Only the Dark One opens and closes the door to Gates of Innocence," said a soft, female voice from behind. Bloom turned around to find a woman, clanged in torn rags and had long, wild red hair that had some gray in it and covered her dirty face in strains. She was barefooted. Though she startled the teen girl, Bloom figured she lived in the town and knew what was happening to it. Maybe even knew where Aiden was.

"Please," Bloom said, "I don't know what's going on here. Do you know what's going on here?" But as she came closer the woman, the woman began to cower away, so Bloom stayed put and spoke softer. "My guardian, I'm looking for him and I'm afraid that he might be hurt or something. There's something weird going on in this town and I need to find him."

"So, you've lost your loved one as well?" the woman asked in her whispered voice after a moment of silence, "We are alike, then." She walked closer to Bloom and Bloom was able to see she had gray eyes and had been crying. She could also see through her ragged red hair that her ears were pointed, telling her she was an elf. _This town must have been a town of elves, _Bloom thought. _Aiden failed to mention that._

"He deceived me, he was evil, he had so much hate," she said as she walked around Bloom, studying her. "He hurt my loved one. He and the others did terrible things to him. But he hurt him something horrible…Dovid." Bloom began to feel remorse for the elf woman as tears began to fall down her eyes at the mention of her loved one.

"What happened to him?" she asked softly. The woman came around to face Bloom.

"He was offered," said the woman in a whisper, "by his own father. His own father offered his own son to Her." Bloom wasn't too sure she knew what was meant by that, but she didn't say anything about it because the woman appeared to be too upset to elaborate.

"I'm so sorry," she said instead, and the woman nodded.

"Who is the loved one you're trying to find, child?" asked the woman. Bloom reached for her locket. She didn't expect this woman to know what Aiden looked like, so she wasted no time trying to explain it and opened the locket to the pictures of her and Aiden.

"This is my guardian," she said as she got closer to show the woman, "Aiden. I lost him in the wreck we had in our car. If you know where he is or if you see him, please tell him to wait for me." The woman looked at the pictures and her eyes widen.

"Yes," she whispered, "he's mine." She then started to reach for the locket. Bloom started to walk back away from her.

"No," she said, "he's mine."

"It's mine," the woman said louder, not taking her eyes of the picture, "It's mine! MINE!" Bloom had the woman almost on top of her but she was able to throw her off and onto the ground. Before the woman could get up, Bloom took out the gun again and pointed it on the elf. When she was on the ground, she settled down a bit, not looking even once at the gun but keeping her gray eyes on the locket. Before Bloom could reply, the woman began talking.

"Into the fire," she whispered so softly, Bloom almost didn't hear her, "you've swallowed their hate." With that, she got up to her feet and walked around Bloom and down the road till she disappeared into the fog. Bloom shutter for a few minutes but shook it off and walked back to the car slowly. As she walked, something caught her eye on the ground. She got closer to it and saw it was an old fashion, copper key.

"Huh," Bloom uttered softly, "That woman must have dropped it. I wonder what it goes to?" She bent down and picked it up. She turned it over in her hands a couple times before she put it in her jacket pocket. _Just in case it might come in handy. _She then continued on towards the car.

Once she reached the back door of the car, she opened it up and reached for the two suit cases-a dark blue one and a black one-that were on top of the folded down seats. She opens the blue suit case first and starts going through her clothing until she unearthed a pair of blue jeans she thankfully packed. She sat them down and began looking for a long sleeved top, but only found short sleeves and tank tops due to the weather that once was. She sighed and closed her suit case and shoved it back to where it was. An idea then came into her had. She turned to the black one and opened it up to find Aiden's clothing. After a few moments, she found what she was looking for: the black, long sleeved sweater that was soft to the touch she had gotten Aiden for his birthday. Because he loved it so much, Aiden always wore it around the house or in replace of a coat due to the warmth it brought.

Bloom smiled a small smile as she remembered when he told her how much he loved it before closing the black suit case and sliding it till it was side by side with the blue one. Bloom then hopped into the back and pulled the door closed and began to change into her new outfit. She took off the skirt and jacket but left the tank top underneath on. When she finished, she put the other clothes into her suit case, taking the copper key out of the jacket as she did, and crawled to the first back seat. She grabbed Aiden's shoulder bag once she was sitting in the seat and began to take out the things in it to make room for her things. As she cleaned it out, she soon realized that there was something missing from the bag and it didn't take too long for Bloom to figure out what it was: Aiden's sketch book. She knew Aiden had placed it back in here for she had seen him do so, but now she couldn't find it.

She sighed and shook off the weird feeling and began to crawl to the driver's seat of the car. She then reached for the keys in the ignition and began to turn them. The car wouldn't start. She tried again and again it wouldn't start. She tried for three more times before giving up and hitting her hands on the wheel in frustration. After she did this, she leaned her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. They weren't closed for a minute before she heard the radio that was fasten around a loop on her jeans start to static. She opened her eyes to look at the radio before something jumped onto the hood of the car, making it shake. Bloom looked through the cracked windshield window to see another creature that had the same skin as the winged creature back at the café did only this time it looked more like a cross between a dog and a cougar.

It growled loudly and hissed as it began to hit the windshield with its paws, causing the glass to break even more. Bloom screamed and reached for the gun in the pocket of her jeans. She took off the safety and pointed at the creature. She fire the gun and the shot went through the glass and into the creature. Because it fell down off the car on onto the ground, Bloom decided not to do any more damage to the car and got out of it. Once she was out, she shot the creature two more times. When the radio became silent, she knew the creature was dead.

Bloom shook her head and looked back at the car and the damage she and the creature caused. _Aiden is going to kill me when he sees that_ she thought. She then looked back at the creature and chuckled a bit at the blood that started to flow out of its body and onto the ground. The thing actually bled normal blood like an animal. She eyed the blood till it came to a piece of paper. Bloom's eyes widen when she spotted it, for she recognized the paper all too well. It was a piece of Aiden's sketchbook paper. _That wasn't there before…_she thought. She walked over to it and picked it up. It was a wonderful drawing of a school that looked like what the buildings in the town had looked like when it was covered in the strange darkness: all dirty and rusty and bloody. In all the windows but one she saw the same demon like creatures that she first saw in the drawing Aiden had done of her while in the very far right hand corner window she saw the person that she had seen it the other picture that was surrounded by the demons. Bloom shook her head and turned the picture over. There were a few words written largely on the back: _To School. _

Bloom lifted her head from the drawing and began to go through the shoulder back on her shoulder until she pulled out the map. She studied it till she found **Bachman School** on it. It was on the other side of the town to her dismay and she didn't have the car to help her. She sighed and folded the map back up and placed it along with the picture into the bag. _I guess I'm going to school then, _she thought in her head. She started walking. _A week early; just my luck._

**Author's Note: Well, here is the next chapter for this story. I do apologize for the long wait for this and other things, but as I have said on my other works, I just recently got the internet back. But it was worth the wait because I was able to update two new chapters for this story, a chapter for KoL, and a new story with four chapters.**

**If any of you have played the game and/or watched the movie of Silent Hill, you will note that dialog has been taken from both. Where Bloom is talking to the officer is from the game along w/ the whole cafe scene. Where she talks to the other elf, that is taken from the movie. Office Felix Brown is my Cibyal Bennett. **

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope you will enjoy the next chapters to come.**

**Until next time! Bye now!**


	4. Chapter 4 To School

**Chapter 4 To School**

Because of how cold the weather seemed to be getting, Bloom became glad that Aiden had packed his black sweater even thought it had been in the seventies when they had started on their trip and proceeded to get hotter. Aiden's black sweater was fuzzy and very warm, so it, along with her jeans, protected her from the growing cold. She was surprised when she walked through the snowy town about how large it was. The map made it seem rather smaller than what it really was; this was the reason she never liked maps and laughed at Aiden when she saw him using one.

The town was crawling with more of those creatures, Bloom soon learned. As she made her way to the school, she got away from four of the four-legged creatures and winged creatures (two each) and killed five of them. After she killed the first one that she encountered on the way, she was surprised that the gun Felix had given her was still loaded. The kind of gun she had only shot six bullets and she used them all on the creature that attacked her at the car. But she didn't realize this till after she shot and killed the first creature that attacked her in the town on her way to the school. _I was given this gun by and _Elf _police man, _Bloom thought, _it must be enchanted. _

After twenty minutes of walking and avoiding the monsters, Bloom finally came to the large, old school. It was a very wide building that was three stories high and covered with windows that were broken or cracked or both. It looked just like the drawing Bloom found even though in the drawing it was the creepy dark version. She slowly walked up the steps leading to the large double doors and pushed open one of the old things. It creaked and moaned as it moved on its hinges; the sound echoed through the silent building.

"AIDEN!" shouted Bloom, hoping he was there somewhere and would answer. The door slammed shut behind her, making her turn around and look at it. On the glass window there was a symbol made from red stained glass and was in the center. It was a circle with two triangles on their sides and missing their bottoms on both of its sides. A skinny oval was in the center of the circle, making the whole thing look like some sort of creepy eye. She shuttered for a moment before turning around and walking up the stairs that lead to the second door that was there. These doors had nothing on their windows and she pushed one open without getting that creped out feeling. These ones were also quiet when opened and when they shut, no noise was echoing through the abandon halls. Because of how dark it was, she reached into the shoulder bag, fished out the flash light, and switched it on.

Bloom shined the light around till she saw a sigh that was above a window that overlooked an office like room reading 'Main Office'. When she got to the door, she found that it was written on the window that was on the door as well. The door was slightly ajar, so she paused for a second wondering why it was open before pushing on it to open it further. Inside the office, she found three large desks, all of which had computers, books, and a sort of file cabinet on them. She walked to the first desk and started to look through the files it had. These files were on the students that attended the school. Nothing really stuck out there, so she moved to the second desk. This one had files on the classes that were given at the school: what they were, who taught them, if they were open or full, and so on. As she skimmed through the classes, one caught her eye. It was an art class that was taught on the first floor of the 'F' wing, room #407. The class itself wasn't what caught Bloom's eye; it was the teacher's name that caught it: Moss, Dovid. Bloom bit her lip. _This teacher has the name of the man that woman was talking about, _Bloom thought, _Could this teacher be him? _She kept the file on the class and walked to the last desk which had files on what she was hoping it did: the teachers.

She searched through the files till she found one that read D. Moss on the label and took it out. Without looking it over just yet, she shoved it into the shoulder bag along with the file on the art class. Before walking away, she found a key ring that was loaded with many keys. Without really thinking, she grabbed them and shoved them into the bag as well.

"Bloom…" came a whisper so soft, it sounded more like a thought. Bloom turned around and looked out the window where the voice had come from, only to find nothing. Slowly, she walked over to the door and out it to have a better look. Again, she saw nothing; she didn't even hear footsteps running away if it was someone. _That was Aiden's voice,_ Bloom thought, _I _know_ it was. What is going on around here? _Another thought soon came to mind; a thought that made her angry. _Is he just using magic and playing a joke on me? If he is, I'm gonna kill him. _A loud thud broke the girl from her thoughts. Bloom turned her head to the source of the sound. It came from down the hall, so she started to run in that direction.

"AIDEN!" Bloom called as she made her way down the hallway towards the sound of the thud. Another sound stopped her in her tracks; it was large footsteps. She turned to her side to see a door way leading to another wing of the school. Bloom shined the light sown the hall to see the source of the sound. The sound slowly got louder, then stopped. A cage with a bird inside appeared from one of the rooms, held by a gloved hand. Bloom didn't wait to see who was the owner of the hand. She covered the light and started running down the hall. She ran out a door that lead to the playground of the school then into another door which lead to another part of the school. But she didn't stop till she got into a classroom. She walked to a window to see if whoever owned the hand was following her only to see nothing once again.

She sighed with relief and turned around to over look the room she was in. There were large desks that could fit two people in two rows of two in the middle of the room and a large desk at the front of the class. A few easels were spread out throughout the room and three huge cabinets on the side of the wall the door was on. Bloom got excited; this room was an art room. She looked at the chalkboard that was behind the teacher's desk and saw it had the words 'Art Class 101' written on it. _Art Class 101? _Bloom thought, _I know that name. This is the art class Dovid Moss teaches. I found it without even looking. Cool. _Looking around the classroom again, she found a little black book along with a little potted plant on one of the desks that was closes to the front. She walks to it and picks up the book to examine it. It is a plain black book, with nothing on the cover and nothing on the back. It looked like some sort of diary…or maybe…

Bloom turned to the first page and found a beautifully drawn pencil drawing picture of a rose. Its petals had rain drops on them and thorns growing on its stem. She turned the page. The next two were pictures of more flowers; the first was a calla lily; the second was a orchid. Again, they were drawn with pencil and wonderfully drawn. _This is a sketch book…_Bloom thought as she continued to flip through the pages. _I wonder who owns it, because these drawings are wonderful. _She turned to the back of the book and found a name on the back cover: _Cheryl Cobalt. _Smiling, she continued to flip through the book, enjoying the pictures of flowers, trees, buildings, and even people till she came to a spot halfway in the book that had writing on it. It was written in cursive, so it was a little hard for Bloom to read, but she was able to make it out when she read slowly.

_ There is a teacher at my school by the name of Dovid Moss. He is my favorite teacher who knows how to draw pictures that look like photographs. But no one else outside this class likes him because they believe him to be a demon. I do not understand why they believe this and neither do the other kids in my class. He is such a nice man, it's hard to believe anything the others say about him, and they say such cruel, evil things about him. Things I know he would never do or could never be. My family and the other kids in my classes' families are some of the few in the town who do not believe in this 'evil' stuff. I like Mister Moss for he is kind to everyone even though they are not kind to him. I know I could never be nice to people who are mean to me._

There was a name at the bottom and a date at the top. The name read _C. Cobalt_; the date read _Sept 21, 1975. _A thousand thoughts ran through Bloom's mind at once. _Poor Dovid, _she thought, _nobody was kind to him outside of his students. I wonder why. What made these people believe he was evil? _Bloom was about to close the book when she saw a piece of paper sticking out from it. She turned to the piece and saw that it was a piece of the sketch book paper that had been torn out from the book. It looked worn and old and had burns on the sides. The side she was looking had writing on it: _My teacher, D. Moss. By Cheryl Cobalt. _Bloom's eyes widen as she realized that this was going to be a drawing of the teacher. She turned it over to look at the drawing, only to have her eyes widen even more. Because it was a little worn, it was hard to see the picture good, but she could tell who it was.

It was a picture of the man that Bloom had seen in replace of her in the drawing Aiden had made during their break. He had the same black hair and the same black jacket with a red collar. Because this was a close up picture, Bloom could see this person had blue eyes and looked a lot more like Aiden than what she had thought. At first he only resembled Aiden, now he looked almost exactly like him. Bloom bit her lip. More thoughts piled into her head. _This is Dovid Moss? I thought he looked a lot like Aiden, but this is ridiculous. He looks almost just like him. Who this man? Why does he look so much like Aiden? _Shaking her head, she put the picture back into the book and loaded it into the shoulder bag. She was about to get up from the desk when something caught her eye. There was something shiny in the plant's pot. She bent down and picked the shiny thing up to get a better look; it was a small, silver key. It looked similar to the copper key besides it was smaller, a different metal, and had a different pattern on the key part telling Bloom that it unlocked a different lock. She compared the two keys in her hands looking over their similarities for a while.

She sighed and got up from the desk then walked over to examine the teacher's desk. It was bare besides a few papers with assignments on them and a few books. But then she saw the writing that was etched all over the desk. Some was in a different language, so she could read only a few words: _Demon, Evil, Go Home, Wicked, Damn you to Hell. _Because they were written over and over again, Bloom figured that's what the other things in a different language said. She just shook her head as she over looked how many times the same hurtful insults were etched into the desk, never to be taken off. _This is terrible, _she thought, _If this is the same Dovid that woman was talking about, then I can see what she mean when she said they hurt him. _She could actually feel tears start to sting her eyes.

"Bloom…" came the whispered voice; this time from behind her. She looked up from the desk and the insults to look behind her. No one was behind her, but there was something: a door. _Must be his office, _Bloom thought, _I wonder if I can find anything in there that will tell me if he's the Dovid the woman was talking about._ She walked over to the door and tried to turn the knob, but it wouldn't turn; it was locked. She reached into the bag and grabbed out the key ring and began trying some of the keys. After the fifth key, she groaned in frustration and gave up when none of them worked. She rested her forehead against the door when a thought came to mind. She remembered the copper key the woman had dropped and the silver key she just found and fished them out of her pocket. She studied them both before she decided on trying the copper one. It fit into the lock perfectly and turned with ease. Putting the keys back into the bag, Bloom opened the door and was soon standing in a dark, small room. It was just as she thought it would be.

It was an office that had a large desk in the middle of the room that held a computer, a few folders, and more books. On one wall there were filing cabinets, but that was about it; nothing else was in the room. Because there was no window, Bloom made the door stay open to allow a little more light into the room than what the flash light could provide. She slowly made her way to the desk. There were no pictures of family members on the desk to her disappointment, for she had wanted to see a real picture of Dovid and see if he was the loved one of the woman. This was when she saw the drawer that was underneath the desk. She quickly took off the shoulder bag and sat down to try and open the drawer without thinking, but it was locked. She groaned in frustration and sat down in the desk's chair, leaning forward so her head was in her hands. This was when she remembered the two keys again. Because the copper key worked opened the door to the office, she decided to try the silver key. She took the silver key out of her pocket and placed it into the lock of the drawer. Like the copper key with the office door, it fit and turned perfectly and she had it unlocked.

She opened it quickly and found it empty…except for another key, a bronze one this time, and a piece of paper that looked to be a portrait of someone. Bloom took out the key first and placed it with the other two keys she had on the desk then took out the picture and looked it over. Her eyes widen; it was a wonderfully drawn picture of the woman, though this time she looked younger and cleaner. She looked so beautiful with her long hair and lovely face. The picture had no color to it, but it was still a wonderful picture that looked like a photograph. She turned the photo around and saw some writing: _My lovely wife, Rie-Leigh. By Dovid Moss. _

"So this is the Dovid she was talking about," Bloom said out loud in a sad voice, "I guess I should have figured. They were married and everything. I wonder what happened to him?" She sighed and grabbed the silver key that was on the desk. She put it into her pocket and over looked the bronze one. _I wonder what this one goes to, _Bloom thought as she twirled it around in her fingers for a moment before putting it with the rest of the two keys. She then put the picture of Rie-Leigh in her bag when the file on Dovid Moss caught her eye. A thought came to her mind. She pulled it out and sat it on the desk before her. It was old and worn looking with the corners missing or curled. She bit her lip as she stared at it; the thought was still in her mind, making her hesitant. She remembered the photo she had seen of Dovid Moss and this made her want to see a real photo of him to see what he looked like. But she was afraid of what she would find.

Finally, after two minutes, Bloom opened the file. The first thing she found was a paper with a small biography about him. He was born November 21, 1955, his mother died when he was seven from a disease, so his father raised him. His father was a very religious man and kept him under tight rules. He was homeschooled by his father. His father made him marry Rie-Leigh Quartz at the age of twenty. Became a student teacher for a year before started teaching art. All personal stuff was on this and a few of the other pieces of paper, but what Bloom really wanted was a picture. After going thought about half of the file, she finally found one. Her eyes widen when she over looked it. She blinked a few times to see if she was seeing things, but the picture never changed.

"Oh. My. God," Bloom whispered slowly. The picture was Dovid's teacher photo. The man in the picture didn't resemble Aiden, nor did he look a lot like Aiden; he was an exact replica of Aiden. From the big features down to the smaller details. He had the same face, same hair style, same eye shape, same mouth, same pointed ears sticking out from his cropped bangs, same everything. He wore a black jacket with a red collar; a jacket Bloom knew all too well. There was only two differences between Aiden and Dovid that was obvious to Bloom; it was their hair and eyes. Aiden had caramel brown hair and amber eyes. Dovid had black hair and sky blue eyes. But those were the only differences. Bloom started to shiver, and she remembered Aiden's picture that he had drawn earlier and how there was a man in it instead of her. It was Dovid; she was sure of it. He was also the one she had been chasing around the town. But did this mean Aiden knew who he was? He sure didn't seem like he did, for he was totally freaked out at the sight of the drawing after it changed. Bloom bit her lip again when her eyes lit up when a thought came into her mind.

_I wonder if this man could be Aiden's real father, _she thought, _Aiden said he was adopted by the Palladiums when he was a baby and that he never found out who his real parents where. He looks just like this man…that can't be a coincident. You may resemble people you aren't related to, but you don't look like you could be their twin. No matter _what_ species you are… _A figure ran across the door, blocking out the light and breaking Bloom from her thoughts.

"Hey!" she shouted as she got up from the desk, leaving the file on it and the shoulder bag next to the chair as she ran out of the office and after the person. The person ran out of the classroom and up the stairs. Bloom ran to the stairs to see who it was. He had long black hair and wore a black jacket with blue jeans.

"Wait!" hollered Bloom as she ran up the stairs after him. When he reached the end, Bloom was still climbing. But when she finally reached the top, she saw him just disappear behind a door and into another room at the end of the hallway. Bloom ran until she too was behind the door and in the room which turned out to be a bathroom. Soft crying could be heard from one of the stalls. It sounded so much like Aiden's crying…Bloom shined her flash light on the ground and got on the floor to look under the stalls. In the last one, she saw a pair of feet hidden in black worker boots lift from the floor. She sighed and started to walk over to the stalls and open them. The first three were empty while the forth was locked. She looked under it to see if that was where the man was when she heard the crying coming from the fifth stall.

"It's ok," she whispered as she stood up and walked slowly to the last stall, "It's gonna be ok. Please don't cry, I promise I will help you." With that, she opened the door slowly. Behind it, however, she didn't find who she was expecting to find. When she opened the door, she found a body, decayed well beyond anything and tied in a tortuous bent shape with barbwire. There was hardly any clothes on the body, but she could make out a janitor's outfit. Its mouth was open with something sticking out. It looked like a piece of paper from Aiden's sketch book, so Bloom slowly began walking over to the body. When she got close enough, she reached past the wire and carefully reached into the dead body's mouth. She tried to hurry and grab the paper without puking. She then finally grabbed it and slowly took her hand out; the paper came out with it. She could feel bile coming up her throat, but she swallowed it and ran away from the body. She was about to leave the bathroom when she saw three people, dressed in the same outfits the disemboweled body she saw earlier was in, outside in the hallway.

One shined its flashlight on her, and she quickly shut the door. Quickly, she reached into the shoulder bag and grabbed the mess of keys on the key rind. She could hear loud footsteps she once heard as she tried to find the key to the bathroom so she could lock the door. Luckily, she found it after only three tries and locked the door before they could reach it. She leaned back against the door and clutched her locket in her hands as she felt the door being kicked by heavy boots.

"Help me," she whispered to the locket, "Please, help me. Oh God, please." Then suddenly, the kicking stopped. They seemed to pause for a moment before she heard the footsteps start to run away. She sighed with relief, thinking her praying had been answered when it suddenly got quiet. Fear shot right back into Bloom when she realized that the whole world had gone silent and she remembered what happened the last time when that had happened. _Oh God, _Bloom thought in her head, _Please no, not this. Not this again. _Sure enough, the loud siren blasted through the silence. Bloom began to breathe fast when she saw from the windows above the bathroom wall the outside world get darker, making the bathroom get darker and darker as well.

"It's happening again," she whispered, "It's getting dark again. Please, not again." Was the last thing she said when the whole world went completely dark.


End file.
